


Community Gardens and Confessions

by nillial



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: F/F, Gardens & Gardening, Mentioned Abuse, Summer, but i imagine theyre college age, eliza likes planting stuff, idk if this is a college au bc nothing about college is said, its a good time!!!, jefferson is a stoner, john n peggy r besties, maria hates summer n crushes, there are negotiations about german shepherds and arguments over papa johns, theyre alone at the community garden bein cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 17:44:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9835328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nillial/pseuds/nillial
Summary: Maria hates summer.She hates its stickiness. She hates the heat. She hates the feeling of the sun drilling into her back. She would rather fall over dead than spend three hours in summertime sun.But, then, Eliza asks her to help in the community garden. Despite how much she loathes the summer and its excessive warmth, she agrees, because who can say no to Eliza?What she didn't expect was a maybe-date and a change of opinion about summer's worth.





	

Maria liked autumn.

She liked wearing jackets to protect herself against the crisp breeze, and she liked the way the leaves crunched under her shoes, and she liked all the gorgeous shades of crimson and sienna and hazel that decorated the trees. Winter came in a close second, with the crunch of the snow, and the bare trees lined with white, and the crackling flame in the fireplace. 

Which is why she could not understand, for the life of her, why Eliza would decide  _ summer _ was her favorite season.

Summer— hot and sticky, sunburn on your shoulders, heat burning into your back, and sweating like you were being interrogated for murder when, in reality, you’ve only been walking in the sun for five minutes. 

And what did Eliza decide she wanted to do during the hell season?

Plant flowers. 

_ For three fucking hours. _

Sometimes she wondered why she loved her so much. Then again, Eliza did look pretty adorable in those denim shorts and that tank top, and her straw sunhat combined with the dirt caking her knees was somehow incredibly endearing. 

She gave a hard glare at the sun, and, much to her dismay, the sun gave her a hard glare in return. “Remind me why we’re doing this again?”   


“We’re planting food,” she grinned. “Then we’ll harvest it and donate it all.”

“There’s gotta be weed growing here somewhere.”

“Please don’t smoke the community garden weed, Maria.”   


“I wasn’t. But if it’s growing in the community garden, is it the community weed? Like, does everyone share it?”

“Maria, we’re supposed to kill the weeds. That’s what we’re here for.”   


“Yeah, but that’s the soul-sucking weeds. The weed-weed isn’t hurting anything. It’s just trying to grow like everything else here. It just wants to grow up into some happy, healthy, adult weed, to eventually be smoked by Jefferson, because I bet if there’s any here, he’s the one who planted it.”   


_ “Maria.” _

“Actually, why do we have to kill the soul-sucking weeds? They just want water and food like everybody else, and what do we do? We slaughter them! Why? Because they have a different means of getting water? Because they’re not as pretty? I don’t wanna kill weeds. I wanna grow weeds— actually, that came out wrong.”

“I’m calling the police.”   


“Fuck. I plead innocent.”   


“Cuss words? Wow, the crimes are piling up. The cops are on their way.”   


“First of all, weed is legal here, second of all, Jefferson probably planted the sharing weed, not me, and third of all, you can’t call the cops on me for cussing.”   


“First of all, recreational weed isn’t  _ quite _ legal here yet, second of all, I saw you eat one of Jefferson’s pot brownies once and you retched because his baking sucks and you’re weak, and third of all, cussing is a federal offense under the Eliza Law.”

“Fuck the Eliza Law. I’m overthrowing the whole damn system.”

“That’s a life sentence. You should be glad I’m your best friend, or else you would already be behind bars.”   


Best friends. They were best friends, and one best friend wasn’t supposed want to kiss the other best friend, right? The other best friend who, presumably, had no romantic feelings for her? If that was true, she was probably a shitty best friend. God, she shouldn’t complain just because she couldn’t date her— she was lucky to have Eliza. Crushes pass and so would this one.    
Except months and months had gone by and nothing had changed. 

It didn’t matter. Crushes passed no matter what. She remembered her small crush on James that dissipated as soon as they began dating. 

God, was she glad to leave. She ended up getting a restraining order. He tried to violate it once and she was terrified, but then Eliza transformed into an Eliza she had never seen before and kicked his ass. He disappeared off the face of her Earth a week later, and she couldn’t have been happier.

Maria felt free now. She felt liberated, able to do what she wanted without fear. It was something she hadn’t felt in a long time.

She tried to focus on planting a bell pepper seedling, but the sun was drilling into her and she was sweating out all the water her body contained.

“I hate summer,” Maria muttered.

“Why?” Eliza asked. “We met in the summer.”   


That was true. They had become best friends in one of the most weirdest circumstances she had ever participated in.

James was using her, just like he was always using her. This time, it was a guy named Hamilton. He paid off James to keep their one night stand a secret. A while after that, Jefferson and his friends accused him of stealing out of the register at his job, so he panicked and told everyone how he cheated on his girlfriend. Eliza had been heartbroken.

She remembered Eliza stopping by her place. James wasn’t there, thank God. Maria would never know if she was there to scream at her or to ask how she was holding up (probably the latter— Eliza, though devastated, had a heart three sizes too big for her body and knew that Hamilton had done her wrong, too). All Maria could remember was seeing her face and bursting into tears, apologizing and apologizing for what she had done, what  _ James _ had made her do, and how she would do anything to make it up to her. Instead of screaming and yelling, Eliza helped her. She let her stay with her, she encouraged her to file for a restraining order, and she never once insulted her.

Eliza forgave Hamilton, and they both moved on while still maintaining a friendship. She went on dates here and there, Alex got a boyfriend, they hung out together sometimes. Maria still thought he was a dipshit. 

“Yeah, I guess,” Maria agreed finally, “but I don’t hate  _ you _ . I hate the weather summer brings. I hate the sun and I hate the excessive heat.”   


“Without the sun, you would die,” Eliza pointed out.

“Judging by how high the temperature is, I think I might die anyways,” she argued.

Eliza nodded her head towards the tray of tomato seedlings. “If you plant the rest of those, we can go swimming tomorrow. Angelica and Peggy have been wanting to, anyways.”

“Deal.” 

Eliza had always been one of the most extroverted people she had ever known, though a little more reserved than her sisters. She was certainly more talkative than Maria, however, though Maria was really only talkative around her. Eliza was kind, and passionate, and charitable, and surprisingly strong, as proven in her fight with Maria’s ex-boyfriend. Ex. Her ex. God, that still felt good to say. 

Eliza had a heart of gold. She helped out whenever she could. When Maria learned that she was planning to work in an orphanage, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise. Eliza had been that way since the day they first met— friendly, thoughtful, with a heart three times too big for her body.

_ Shit. _ She loved her. She really, really loved her.

“I almost forgot!” Eliza gasped, interrupting her thoughts. “Do you want a dog?”   


“Do I  _ what?” _

“Peggy brought home a whole cardboard box of puppies yesterday, but we can only keep one. There’s, like, six of them, and I really want to find them all homes, and I think you’d be a pretty good dog owner, so…” 

“What makes you think I would be a good dog owner?”

“You just… seem like a person that’d like a big dog. I think they’re gonna be big, anyways. The vet told us they’re mutts, but they seem to be mostly german shepherd.”

She did have a soft spot for big dogs, but she pressed. “German shepherd?”

“Yeah. I looked it up, and they’re like you, I think.”   
“How so?”   
“Well, uh,” she mumbled, averting her gaze as her cheeks pinked, “they’re courageous.”

She almost laughed. Her?  _ Courageous? _ Maria always saw herself as the wimpiest person there ever was to live. She settled on grinning and saying, “You can’t be serious.”

“Well, I mean, you put up with a lot of sh-- stuff. It takes a pretty courageous person to do that.”

She felt herself blush and her heart bloom. She loved her, and she wanted to tell her that so badly. 

Instead of thanking her, and instead of complimenting her in return, and instead of confessing on the spur of the moment, she said, “Did Eliza Schuyler almost break her own law?”

She rolled her eyes and snickered. “Don’t rat me out! I can’t go back, Maria. I can’t.”

“Now the only place you’ll be gardening at is the… prison one. The prison garden.”   


“Do prisons have gardens?”   


“Some do. Don’t ask me. I’ve never been to prison-- unlike some people, apparently.”

Eliza, grin plastered on her face as always, inhaled slowly and recounted her story. “It was a hot summer day, just like this one…” 

“You planted weed in the community garden.”

“I was  _ framed,  _ I tell you!  _ Framed!” _

“Save it. I knew you were working with Jefferson.”   


“But my baking is amazing! You wouldn’t have retched if  _ I _ made pot brownies.”

She considered it for a moment, tapping a dirt-covered finger on her chin. “That’s true…”   


“See?”   


“Innocent until proven guilty.”

“Come on! Aren’t my superior baking skills evidence enough?”

“Tell it to the judge, Schuyler.”   


She paused for a moment, and then said, “I did spend the night in prison once, though.”   


_ “What? _ You committed a really minor crime? Holy shit, did you actually plant weed in the community garden?”

“No. Peggy and John almost got arrested at some protests a couple times, so Henry Laurens made John go through this program to  _ ‘encourage young delinquents into behaving and get them off of the streets.’ _ Basically, it was one of those things where a cop yells at you and tells you all about prison life. John said he wasn’t going without Peggy, and Peggy said she wasn’t going without me, and when I asked why she couldn’t go with Angelica, she said it was because she wanted to see  _ me _ do it.”   


“Why did John even go? Asshole Father is in South Carolina. He can’t force him to do anything.”

“He threatened to cut him off from his siblings again. For two months this time, instead of one. Last time that happened he missed Mary’s birthday, and this time he was gonna miss James’s birthday.”

“Ah. Which is probably why he was deemed ‘Asshole Father.’”

“Yeah. Anyways, they made you spend the night in prison. It was the middle of winter and I was freezing. That place could use a new heater or something.”

“So you didn’t even commit a crime? Boring.”

“Yeah, well, John said he was happy because his dad would leave him alone for a little while, and Peggy was happy because we went to get breakfast afterwards and she got herself this huge blueberry muffin. It had a crumbly top and everything. I made her pay for it though, and she had to do my laundry for a week.”

“Damn. When are we eating? I’m starving and I really want muffins now.”

“Well, considering the fact that we won’t be done until noon, I don’t think they’ll be serving huge blueberry muffins.”   


“Fine. Can we get pizza?”   


“Yeah. You wanna get Domino’s?”   


“No, Dominos sucks.”

_ “What?” _ Eliza gasped, feigning hurt. “Maria, I thought we were  _ friends.” _

“Ugh, not anymore. I can’t be friends with someone who likes something as vile as Domino’s.”   


“But what about Cinna Stix?”   


“... I like Cinna Stix, but any other Domino’s product is abominable. The only pizza I fuck with is Papa John’s.”   


“No, I can’t go to Papa John’s! John Laurens ruined it for me.”

“Oh, God. Nevermind. We aren’t going to Papa John’s.”

“Good. Little Caesars?”   


“Little Caesars.”

“Rest in Peace, Papa John’s.”   


“Papa John isn’t dead— wait, is he?”   


“Not actual Papa John. I mean the leftover Papa John’s I’m going to demolish tonight. Even after learning about whatever godforsaken conversation you had with John Laurens, one of which I can only assume the content of, nothing can ruin Papa John’s for me.”

“Have you eaten anything else today besides Papa John’s?”   
“No. This morning I shoved a parmesan breadstick into my mouth and ran. Even after being stuck in the refrigerator overnight, it still tasted like the heavens above descended onto my taste buds. Like I said, the only pizza I fuck with is Papa John’s.”

“What about supper?”   


“I’ve still got half a pizza left. I plan to follow through with my Papa-John’s-Only diet.”

Eliza rested her chin on her dirt covered hand. “Why not come eat with us? Angelica said she was gonna make chili and pasta.”

“Or you could come eat with me and pretend it’s Domino’s.”   


“Or we could go out to eat,” she suggested. “Together. Alone.”

Maria could have easily been mistaken, but she thought she saw pink dusting Eliza’s cheeks. 

“Really?” she asked. “Where do you wanna go?”

“I heard of this one restaurant that's supposed to pretty nice. I mean, if you want to go…”

“Yeah!” she replied, perhaps a little too quick. “I'd, uh, love to go. With you, I mean.” 

“Great!” Eliza said, blush now becoming increasingly evident across her face. “That's, um, really great.”

With a grin, she turned back to her plants. 

Shit, was that a date? 

No, it couldn't have been. She was reading into things. All Eliza did was invite her out to dinner and nothing else. Dinner together. Alone. At a restaurant she described as “nice.” 

Aw, shit,  _ was _ that a date?

She wouldn’t be complaining if it was, really, but she kind of needed specification. Were her dreams coming true and were birds about to circle around her and sing gleefully? Was this just a friendly outing?

She didn’t want to ask her. Then again, she needed to. There was no other way to find out. But what if Eliza got weirded out? What if she started distancing herself after that? What if she decided to end their friendship, with Maria being the cause— 

“Hey, I never got an answer on that German Shepherd puppy.”   


Oh, right. The German Shepherd. The “courageous” animal.

“Uh… Let me think about it?”   


“Oh, so you’re considering?  _ Yes! _  I knew you would like German Shepherds.”

“How did you know I liked big dogs, anyway?”

She winced. “Don’t think I’m a stalker.”

“That’s  _ exactly _ what a stalker would say.”

“Man, you caught me.”

“Damn. Community weed-planting  _ and _ stalking, plus almost breaking your own law? Thin ice, Schuyler.”

“Yeah, I know, the cops are on stand-by. Anyways, remember that one party we went to?”   


“You’re gonna have to be more specific.”   


“It was the one where Burr reluctantly agreed to come along, got wasted, and ended up doing body shots off a stranger.”   


“Oh, yeah! God, I’m so upset I didn’t get to witness that.”

“Anyways, I was the designated driver. You were pretty drunk and you were ranting to me about how much you love dogs, and when I asked what kind of dogs you liked, you said,  _ ‘I love really, really big dogs. They mean more to me than all the red velvet cake in the world, and I love red velvet cake. Do you like red velvet, ‘Liza? Red velvet is amazing.’ _ Then you started talking about red velvet cake.”

She remembered that? Maria couldn’t even remember what time she fell asleep last night. 

Though, looking back, she could recall weird things about Eliza, too. For example, how she loved cats but was allergic to cat hair, and how she had six evergreen scented candles in her room, and how she used to have a perm in first grade. Maybe her brain deemed that important information because she thought it was cute. 

Did Eliza think that her rants about red velvet cake and big dogs were cute?

No— sometimes things get stuck in people’s heads for no reason. That was probably what happened to Eliza.

And the German Shepherd— what was she going to say about the German Shepherd? Her place  _ did _ allow pets, and she  _ did _ love big dogs. However, she was kinda broke, and she wasn't sure if she would be able to afford to take care of one. 

_ I should probably say no, _ she thought. 

However, her mouth ignored the voice of reason and her heart said,  _ “Fuck it.” _

“Fuck it,” Maria declared. “I’m broke, but I’ll take the puppy.”

Eliza raised an eyebrow. “I can help you care for it.”

“Nah, ‘Liza, it’s cool,” she said. “I can find a way.”

Her friend thought for a minute, and then exclaimed, “It can be a together-puppy!”

“... Together-puppy?”

“Yeah! It’ll stay at your place, I pay for the stuff, but I help pick a name.”

“Eliza, no.”

“Why not?”

“That's just you owning a puppy but letting it stay with me. I’m not gonna let you pay for my shit. And… I don't take money from people anymore.”

“Maria, you and I both know that James was the one who—”

She winced. “Ugh, no, nevermind. I hate his name and I hate talking about him. Just— you can't pay for the puppy.”

Eliza sighed. “Fine. We’ll, uh… set rules.”

“Like what?”

“Uh… we split the expenses seventy-five/twenty-five, the seventy-five being me, it’ll stay at your place three weeks out of the month, I take care of it when you're not there and vice versa. Oh, and I still help pick a name. Deal?”

She pondered it for a moment. This still felt like taking money. Really, she didn't need help. She could find a way to pay for it, even if she  _ was _ broke. 

“Why are you helping me?” she asked finally. 

“Because you're Maria and I wanna share a puppy. Deal?”

“But I can find a way to pay.”

“Or we could share it. Anyways, deal?”

“I don't wanna take your money.”

Eliza’s gaze hardened. “Nobody’s taking anyone’s money. We are splitting expenses and we are sharing the puppy. Deal?”

Maria sighed. Eliza had a soul made of sunshine, which also meant she liked helping people out. She just wished she didn't have to be one of those people. 

She didn't accept help anymore. She didn't ask for money. That was what James had made her do, and she refused to do what James told her now. 

But James wasn't there, and she did need help if she wanted a puppy. She didn't even have to take it, really— she just didn't want to disappoint Eliza, and a dog sounded fun. 

Fuck. She needed help.

“Deal,” she reluctantly agreed.

“Okay, so, what's it's name?” Eliza asked, planting the last of the corn.

“Susan,” she said, not missing a beat.

“We only have boys left.”

“A boy can be named Susan. Anybody can be named Susan. That's why it's a name.”

“Or it can be named Philip.”

“After your dad? Eliza, what the fuck?”

“Philip’s a pretty name.”

“So is Susan.”

“Fine. Susip.”

“Susip?”

“Yeah. It sounds like tulip. Tulips and gardening, the dog was adopted while we were gardening… a pretty nice story, don't you think?”

She rolled her eyes, but grinned nonetheless. “Yeah, okay. Susip.”

Eliza punched the air. “Susip is our dog child!”

“Puppy. Susip is a puppy.”

“Like I said, Susip is our dog child! Hell yeah!”

Maria gasped and leaned back in mock offense. “Eliza. You just… broke your own law.”

“What?”

“You broke the Eliza Law!”

“Oh. Oops.”

“‘Oops?’ Eliza, it’s fuckin’ anarchy out here!”

“I’m a terrible leader.”

“You bet your ass you're a terrible leader! People are shitting their pants, they're raiding government buildings, they're murdering each other. They're going fuckin’ wild! They have no rules to abide by!”

“Aw, man. Not again.”

“This is the fall of Elizocracy! We’re witnessing the destruction of a nation and its people!”

“Crap.”

“Oh, no, Eliza, no more cuss-censoring. No more ‘dangit’s and ‘crap’s and ‘butt’s and ‘gosh darnit’s. There's full-on anarchy out here!” She raised her dirt-stained hands to her face. “This isn't what I meant when I said that I was ‘overthrowing the whole damn system.’ This isn't what I meant.”

“What nation am I running again?”

“The Schuyler Community Garden Plot! You cussed in front of the plant babies and now they're dying!”

“They can't hear!”

Maria glared at the row of corn seedlings Eliza had just finished planting. “Corn have ears.”

“Oh my God, Maria.”

“I’m just telling the truth! The potatoes have eyes! They saw you! The beans stalk! They saw you, too!”

“Anyways,” she said, likely wanting nothing more than to escape the loop of old jokes, “it's noon and we’re done.”

“Oh, is it?” Maria smiled sweetly. “Bye, little plant babies.” 

Eliza laughed, stood, and dusted the dirt off her knees. Maria still thought she looked adorable.

As they made their way out of the garden, Maria’s focus slipped to the promise of a supper that Eliza had made.

It was probably just a friendly proposal and nothing more. Eliza just wanted to hang out. 

But it kind of sounded like a date.

Still, they were nothing more than friends, and never had been. Sure, there was the occasional vague flirting that, humiliatingly, made her heart pound, but that was about it. Eliza obviously didn’t want to date her.

Although, it  _ did _ still sound a little like a date…

But it wasn’t. It wasn’t a date and it never would be. Eliza didn’t have feelings for her. She probably never did. She was her best friend. Maria needed to get over her, and she needed to stop letting her stupid fucking crush obstruct her vision of reality.

It did sound just a tiny bit like a date, though, right? If she had anyone she could ask without dying of embarrassment, they would probably say it sounded, at the very least, a little like a date. Because it  _ did _ sound like a dinner date! She wasn’t overthinking it!

_ Fuck this. _ She was overthinking it. She was overthinking everything. She needed to ask her. She needed clarity. Then again, it was a question that would either create an air of awkwardness that wouldn’t go away for a while or it would be something they would joke about later.    
She was too much of a wimp to do it. Feelings pass. So would this one, no matter how slow.

Still, Eliza did relate her to a German Shepherd for the fact that she was ‘courageous.’ Maria still didn’t fully trust it herself. She knew she was far from brave. 

She wanted to believe that, though. She wanted to think she was lionhearted and valiant, with no fear of what was ahead of her or what was behind her. She wanted to believe that she could and would do something daring, like bungee-jumping off a cliff, or climbing a steep mountain to its peak. She wouldn’t, though. She wasn’t even brave enough to do something as simple as ask Eliza if she invited her on a date, much less ask her out on one herself.

She had to be, though. She had to be if she ever wanted to believe that she could be courageous, just like Eliza told her she was. She couldn’t let her down now.

Fuck it. 

“Hey, Eliza,” she said, her voice a slightly higher pitch with a little more of a tremble to it, “I need to, um, ask you something.”   


“Yeah?” she replied, nonchalant. Meanwhile, Maria was internally flipping her shit. She had to do this. She couldn’t quit now.

“Back there, when you, um, asked me if we could get dinner together, was that, an, uh…” She bit her lip and felt redness seep into her cheeks. “Was that a date?”

Eliza stopped in her tracks.  _ Shit, shit, shit, she fucked up, she fucked up, she fucked up. _

She turned to Maria, a smile on her face. “It is if you want it to be.”   


What the fuck was that supposed to mean? Of course she wanted it to be, but she didn’t want to tell Eliza that. What if she was just joking? What if she responded wrong? Maria was usually good at flirting and teasing, but not with Eliza. Flirting with Eliza was pure torture. It made her heart pound, and her speech falter, and her face burn. She’d seen Eliza flirt with strangers before, too— it was like watching a deer in headlights. How was she being so smooth? What the fuck was going on? How did she magically lose her ability to flirt around her, whereas Eliza magically gained it?

It didn’t matter. Eliza was still waiting for an answer.   


Fuck it, fuck this, fuck it all.

“And… what if… I want it to be?” she asked, nearly exploding.

Her grin widened. “I was hoping you’d say that. It’s a date.”   


Before she could say anything else, Eliza planted a kiss on her cheek.

_ Holy fuck. _

“C’mon,” she said, ignoring the fact that Maria was internally combusting. “I’m starving. Let’s get lunch. After that, we can hang out at my place until supper, if you want.”   


“Yeah,” she responded, perhaps a little too quickly. “Yeah, we can do that.”   


They walked out of the garden together. She felt a little more courageous, despite her previous notion about her ever gaining bravery being impossible.

Maria decided that she liked summer, in spite of her prior hatred concerning its stickiness and unbearable hot weather. 

After all, she and Eliza met in the summer.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> I thought this was a pretty cute pairing and I wanted to write something for it. I hope I did it justice! This was intended to be shorter-- I was thinking it would, maybe, take 2000 words to finish-- but it turned out alright, and I'm happy with it. Maria and Eliza are adorable. I want to try writing more about them in the future, so if you have any prompts you wanna share or any questions you have, shoot them at me in the comments or on nillial.tumblr.com.  
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
